Erin Hunter, author of the best-selling fantasy cat clan series "Warriors," is going canine with a six-book companion series about dogs. "Survivors," launched last week, follows a lone dog whose circumstances force him to join a pack. Like "Warriors," "Survivors" will be penned by a team of authors who write under the name Erin Hunter. We caught up with Gillian Philip - the Erin Hunter who wrote the series kickoff "Survivors: The Empty City. " Why follow a series about cats with another animal fantasy series about dogs?

"My son was murdered." That's how the mothers and the fathers begin their sentences. They've lost loved ones to the violent streets of Baltimore -- just weeks ago, or maybe years ago -- and they want to talk. Need to talk. They seek out a reporter. "Do you want to talk to me about my son?" They're wearing T-shirts with photos of their lost children on the front. They're holding pictures above their heads for all to see. They're clutching white angels to put on a tree in a room at the downtown courthouse.

September 29, 2010 | By Ken Ellingwood and Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

Rescue workers using megaphones to call out to survivors climbed through mud Tuesday in a slow, slogging search after a landslide crashed into a sleeping village in southern Mexico. Despite fears of widespread loss of life in the town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, only a few people were missing by Tuesday evening. Poor road and weather conditions throughout the day had hampered rescue efforts and attempts to fathom the full scale of the slide. Swollen, chocolate-colored rivers swept over their banks in places.

Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and Mexico City -- The capital of Haiti lay in ruins Wednesday, shattered by an earthquake it was not built to withstand. With most international aid yet to arrive, bodies lined the streets, the injured gathered at hospitals devoid of doctors or functioning equipment, swaths of the city were reduced to rubble and even the presidential palace -- long a symbol of whatever stability the country could muster -- was damaged and sagging. Most telecommunications were down, making it next to impossible for the government and aid agencies to count the casualties or assess the extent of damage from the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Tuesday afternoon.

The number of cancer survivors in the United States nearly quadrupled from 1971 to 2007, growing from 3 million to 11.7 million, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The increase reflects earlier detection, improved diagnostic methods, more effective treatment, improved clinical follow-up after treatment and an aging U.S. population, the agency said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . Breast, prostate and colorectal cancers were the most common types of cancer among survivors, and female survivors (54.3%)

Kudos to Lynell George ("When a Loved One Chooses Death," April 12) for the insightful, in-depth article about Sam and Lois Bloom and the hours of Life-Saving support that they offer survivors of suicide. My life was tragically and forever altered when my fiance chose to end his life. During the weeks and months of despair that followed, the Blooms were like a beacon of light for me in an otherwise dark world. They continue to selflessly devote an incredible amount of their time participating in suicide research and helping survivors cope and heal after a loved one has died by suicide.

A South Carolina police officer says he listened in disbelief as two men he saw running from blazing plane wreckage described how they escaped the inferno. Lt. Josh Shumpert said Wednesday he later learned the men were former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity disc jockey DJ AM. Shumpert had kept the badly burned men talking as they waited for medical help Friday night after the crash in Columbia. The musicians were the only survivors. Two pilots and two passengers -- all from the L.A. area -- were killed.

Fishing boats carrying more than 300 men reached safety six days after a cyclone ravaged southeast India's coastline, but almost 1,000 others were still missing, Andhra Pradesh state officials said Tuesday. "Three hundred fifteen fishermen have been found, 985 are still missing," said Vijay Kumar, a senior official coordinating relief operations from Hyderabad, the state capital.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Tuesday assured the survivors of Oklahoma's deadly tornado that the nation is “there for them” and that the government will keep its focus on the rescue effort as long as is needed. As emergency workers worked to find survivors amid the rubble in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, Obama said he has dispatched top officials to the region and directed his advisors to do all they can to help. “Oklahoma needs to get everything that it needs right away,” Obama said in a morning statement at the White House.

As temperatures dropped in Japan overnight, rescuers searched for survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left many stranded without electricity, food or water. Almost 2 million households were without power in the freezing north, according to Kyodo News Agency, and about 1.4 million were without running water. About 300,000 people had been evacuated nationwide as of Sunday, the news agency reported. The death toll rose to 1,597, with hundreds more missing, officials at the National Police Agency Emergency Disaster Headquarters said early Monday.